Deputy prime minister: Cultural autonomy for Hungarians going well in Serbia, less so in Romania

All parts of the Hungarian nation can take heed that in Serbia the cultural autonomy of the Hungarian community is under way, Hungary’s deputy PM said at the 28th Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) summer university, in central Romania, on Friday.

“Hungary and the Hungarians have formed an honest reconciliation with Serbia … and have trust, friendship, and close cooperation in international affairs,” Zsolt Semjén said.

He added that if that was not the case with Romania, then this was not Hungary’s fault.

“If we could do it with [Serbia], I do not think the problem is [on Hungary’s side]; rather, the Romanians are incapable,” he said.

Answering a question about the WWI Trianon peace treaty, under which two-thirds of Hungary’s territory was ceded to neighbouring countries, Semjen said that “uniting the nation” through giving ethnic Hungarians Hungarian citizenship was an adequate response. He said it was “natural” that Hungarians have “mourned over the lives of millions ruined”, but added that Hungary “must be proud of having survived that brutal maiming”.

Concerning the treaty, signed in June 1920, Semjén said that it was only partly a result of the war, in which Hungary was on the losing side, it was “at least as important” that “an anti-patriotic gang of traitors in Budapest had ruined Hungary’s statehood, its defence capabilities and deliberately disarmed the Hungarian army”.

“Whenever the rulers of Hungary are anti-patriotic, the cause of the global Hungarian community will never be promoted,” Semjén warned.